With less than a month for the bye-elections to four Assembly constituencies in Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK has announced its list of candidates contesting in these seats. Bye-elections will be held in Ottapidaram in Thoothukudi district, Aravakurichi in Karur district, Tirupparankundram in Madurai district and Sulur in Coimbatore district on May 19.
The AIADMK on Tuesday released the list of candidates who will be contesting the bye-polls on behalf of the party in these four constituencies. VP Kandasamy, the President of Coimbatore Rural district Puratchi Thalaivi Amma Peravai will be the candidate in Sulur while Karur District Youth Wing head VV Senthil Nathan will face the bye-polls from Aravakurichi. Avaniapuram area secretary S Muniyandi will contest in the Tirupparankundram Assembly seat and P Mohan, Joint Secretary of Thoothukudi North district AIADMK is the candidate for the Ottapidaram reserved constituency.
The four Assembly constituencies will go to polls on May 19, nearly a month after 38 out of the 39 Lok Sabha constituencies and 18 Assembly seats went to elections on April 18. The Election Commission had not announced elections to three out of the four seats in March citing cases pending in court.
Two out of the four Assembly seats that will be going for polls on May 19 fell vacant due to disqualification of the sitting MLA by the assembly Speaker in 2017. V Senthil Balaji, who was the MLA of Aravakurichi before he was disqualified is now contesting from the same seat on a DMK ticket. R Sundarraj, the Ottapidaram MLA who was also disqualified in 2017 will be contesting in his old constituency representing AMMK.
Tirupparankundram and Sulur seats became vacant after its sitting MLAs died. While Tirupparankundram’s MLA AK Bose (AIADMK) died in August 2018, Sulur MLA R Kanagaraj (AIADMK) passed away in March 2019.
Filing of nominations for the bye-elections began on Monday for the four constituencies and will end on April 29. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is May 2.